Monitoring and coordination of air regions, such as corridors, is a complex task, one that requires the user to have a complete understanding and awareness of the situation including interaction of the air regions with each other, with aircraft and with adjacent terrain details.
Traditional air traffic control systems for both military and commercial air traffic provide a 2-dimensional (2D), top-down plan view of an air-space environment. This is a severe limitation, because it forces the controllers to comprehend a 3-dimensional (3D) environment in a 2D system. Some modern systems attempt to remedy this problem by constructing the air space visualization in a 3D scene. While this does provide an advantage, the systems are quite simple in nature, and do not enhance the visualization with the display of properties of the airspace and of airspace objects and interaction techniques that are important when operating such a system.
Traditional systems for visualizing air corridors use a 2-dimensional, top down display. This is despite the fact that the information being displayed, the relationships between airplanes and air corridors, exists in 3D space. This creates difficulty in the creation and monitoring of air traffic relative to the real world due to typical concurrent use of air volumes by multiple airborne entities, such as but not limited to aircraft and airborne munitions.
ISD Data AB [5], in support of the Swedish Air Force, created a 3D display system for the training of air traffic controllers. ISD's system “shows altitude relationships between airplanes, restricted flight areas, and designated training areas in 3D environments, providing better understanding of the events in a 3D space.” This system is designed for visualizing air traffic in the area immediately surrounding a control tower. However, this system simply shows a representation of the flight vector. This vector does not allow for an appropriate level of precision in airspace conflict resolution. This system is also limited in its ability to render 3D terrain information.
Command and Control Technologies Corporation [4] has created a system for aerospace traffic control, including mission planning and analysis of space launch vehicles. This system “renders space transition corridors, mission vehicle trajectories, Air Route Traffic Control Centers and sectors, and aircraft flight routes in 2D and 3D images positioned on accurate maps of the Earth and the U.S. national airspace system.” However, this system does not provide for ease of flight route generation and interaction of the route visualisations for aircraft with respect to the adjacent terrain.
SDAT Enterprise has also produced a system for use in the analysis and design of airspace and traffic flows. It provides tools for global-scale visualizations of air traffic in a 3D environment. Geographic information is displayed using wire-frame models of boundaries, but without association to terrain detail. Air paths are shown as vector lines, only.
Lange et al. [1], in collaboration with the EuroControl Centre for R&D in air traffic control, have introduced a 3D VR (virtual reality) system for real time visual representation and manipulation of data in air traffic management and control. This system provides for the creation and management of air traffic routes on a varying scale, from airport level up to a global level. Visualization is provided via an immersive VR environment, using a 3D wand pointer for controlling movement about the scene. Interaction with flight paths is provided, wherein the user can select waypoints along the path to be adjusted. As in the SDAT system, air paths are represented as simple line vectors. The system uses a 3D model of the aircraft at its current place along the air path.